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CHAOS

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 849 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAOS , in the Hesiodic theogony, the See also:

infinite empty space, which existed before all things (Theog. 116, 123). It is not, however, a See also:mere See also:abstraction, being filled with clouds and darkness; from it proceed See also:Erebus and Nyx (See also:Night), whose See also:children are See also:Aether (upper See also:air) and Hemera (See also:Day). In the Orphic See also:cosmogony the origin of all goes back to Chronos, the personification of See also:time, who produces Aether and Chaos. In the Aristophanic See also:parody (Birds, 691) the winged See also:Eros in See also:conjunction with gloomy Chaos brings forth the See also:race of birds. The later See also:Roman conception (See also:Ovid, Metam. i. 7) makes Chaos the See also:original undigested, amorphous See also:mass, into which the architect of the See also:world introduces See also:order and See also:harmony, and from which individual forms are created. In the created world (cosmos, order of the universe) the word has various meanings:—the universe; the space between See also:heaven and See also:earth; the under-world and its ruler. Metaphorically it is used for the immeasurable darkness, eternity, and the infinite generally. In See also:modern usage " chaos denotes a See also:state of disorder and confusion.

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